EDITORIAL 



SECRETARY FALL APPEALS FOR HELP 



T N opposing the transfer of the National Forests of 

 Alaska from the Forest Service, Department of Agri- 

 culture, to the Department of Interior, the American 

 Forestry Association has brought down upon itself the 

 wrath of Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall. Early 

 in Alarch, Secretary Fall appealed to the President to 

 protect him from what he called "vicious propaganda" 

 emanating from the American Forestry Association. 

 This he followed with what appeared to be a carefully 

 planned appeal for public support and sympathy by a 

 series of statements and interviews given to the news- 

 papers. 



The American Forestry Association has no persona' 

 quarrel with Secretary Fall. It has not attacked him per- 

 sonally. It has no intention of doing so. But it does 

 oppose and it will continue to oppose unequivocally such 

 conservation proposals as it believes to be contrary to the 

 public interest, whether they are sponsored by Secretary 

 Fall or by someone else. It believes that many of Sec- 

 retary Fall's alleged conservation policies, which as a 

 public servant he is seeking to make the law of the land, 

 are dangerous to the public welfare and, if enacted into 

 law, would have the effect of setting" back conservation 

 .to the days when national resources were considered fair 

 prey for monopolistic and capitalistic interests. 



For more than twenty years the people of the United 

 States have fought to save what remains of the public 

 land forests and to make them serve permanently all the 

 people as well administered properties. The American 

 Forestry Association, a voluntary organization of more 

 than forty years' standing, has participated in that fight, 

 always on the side of the public interests. It believes that 

 the National Forests and the manner in which they are 

 serving the public are the highest expression of the 

 soundness of the conservation principles for which it 

 stands. In answer to Secretary Fall's charges, it replies 

 that it flings down the gauntlet in the face of any pro- 

 posals which it believes will undermine or annul the Na- 

 tional Forests and the conservation principles which 

 they embody. 



That the American Forestry Association is not alone 

 in its distrust of Secretary Fall's conservation policies 

 is evidenced by the wide public protest which has been 

 raised against making him the custodian of the National 

 Forests. Newspapers in all parts of the country have 

 voiced their criticism and scores of organizations have 

 passed resolutions protesting against turning the Na- 

 tional Forests over to the Department of the Interior. 

 The time is not yet when a public servant can win his 

 case by appealing for public sympathy. If the public 

 thinks he is wrong in principle, it will not support him. 



SOME EXPLANATIONS SECRETARY FALL DID NOT MAKE 



T N his quoted interviews with newspaper men last 

 * month. Secretary Fall made a number of statements 

 which lacked explanation of fact. And in that respect 

 they were misleading. He criticized the Department of 

 .\griculture for permitting large quantities of high-grade 

 lumber, including spruce for airplanes, to be shipped to 

 Japan and China. "If I get control of the Forest Serv- 

 ice," he is quoted as saying, "I promise that not another 

 foot of that kind of material will reach Japan." 



Either Secretary Fall does not know, or he failed to 

 impress his interviewer with the fact that only about 3 

 per cent of the timber cut in Oregon and Washington 

 is cut from the National Forests and that in the fiscal 

 year 1920 the cut of lumber from the Indian forest reser- 

 vations, under control of the Department of the Interior, 

 in these two states exceeded slightly the cut from the 

 .\ational Forests. Although the cut from Indian reser- 

 vations in Oregon and Washington during the fiscal year 

 1921 is reported as somewhat smaller, the fact remains 

 that the contracts by which timber is sold and cut from 

 the Indian reservations contain no clauses prohibiting 



the exportation of lumber from the United States. The 

 commercial purchaser of Indian forest stumpage is as 

 free to export it to China and Japan as is the purchaser 

 of National Forest stumpage. 



At the present moment, Secretary Fall's department 

 is advertising for sale 305,000,000 feet of timber in the 

 Quinault Indian Reservation in Washington, under a 

 sample contract which contains no clause prohibiting the 

 purchaser from exporting the lumber, although the sale 

 embraces 193,000,000 feet of cedar and 39,000,000 feet 

 of spruce, species for which the export demand is great- 

 est. Why does not Secretary Fall restrict the exporta- 

 tion of timber sold by his own department before assert- 

 ing what he would do on this exportation question should 

 he get control of the National Forests ? 



As for the total lumber cut in Washington and Oregon, 

 almost 95 per cent is cut from private land, and Mr. 

 Fall, as Secretary of Agriculture, would have no more 

 authority to stop its exportation than he now has as 

 Secretary of the Interior. 



